Your comments are welcome, including why you like
this tune, any musical challenges it presents, or additional background information.

Jazz musicians, fans, and students of all ages use this website as an educational resource.
As such, off-topic, off-color, unduly negative, and patently promotional comments will be removed.

Once submitted, all comments become property of JazzStandards.com.
By posting, you give JazzStandards.com permission to republish or otherwise distribute your comments in any format or other medium.
JazzStandards.com reserves the right to edit or remove any comments at its sole discretion.

Barney Bigard and His Jazzopaters introduced “Caravan” on the Variety label in December, 1936. The recording entered the pop charts in June of 1937, rising to number four. A month later, the recording by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra on the Master label (pressed in May, 1937) found its way onto the charts and rose to number twenty.

Of the two labels, Variety was reserved for new talent and experimental projects. Helen Oakley, the wife of journalist Stanley Dance, was its A & R (artist and repertoire) manager. She suggested to Mills that they try some small group recordings using musicians from the Ellington Orchestra. Given the go-ahead, Oakley arranged for a number of sessions, one of which included the December 19, 1936, Los Angeles recording of “Caravan” by Barney Bigard and His Jazzopaters. With Bigard on clarinet, the Jazzopaters consisted of Cootie Williams (trumpet), Juan Tizol (valve trombone), Harry Carney (baritone sax), Duke Ellington (piano), Billy Taylor (bass), and Sonny Greer (drums). Though the Jazzopator hit proved the feasibility of Oakley’s idea, both the Variety and Master labels were defunct before the close of 1937 due, in part, to stiff business competition.

As with many of Duke Ellington’s compositions the idea originated with one of his musicians. In the case of “Caravan” it was trombonist Juan Tizol. Ellington is quoted in Stuart Nicholson’s Reminiscing in Tempo: A Portrait of Duke Ellington as saying “... that’s one of those things Tizol came up with. See, it wasn’t in tempo, he stood [and played it] sort of ad lib. He played it, [the] first ten bars, we took it and worked out the rest of it.”

When it came to credit and royalties for musicians’ contributions, the settlement was often a flat fee. For “Caravan” Irving Mills paid Juan Tizol twenty-five dollars. When the recording became a hit, however, Tizol requested Mills cut him in on the royalties, which the manager did.

Ellington’s arrangement of
“Caravan” makes the song. Starting in a minor key
and performed with a Middle Eastern beat, the music
creates an exotic atmosphere, all the while conjuring
up such elements as camels, tents and the desert.
For those imagining a hot and dusty day in the caravan
trade, Irving Mills’ lyrics provide a significant
course correction, relating intrigue and romance
as two lovers travel beneath the stars. Mills’ rhyming
is simple, the words seem dashed off, and, unless
you can accept an implied progression of time, the
lines are contradictory: The stars are bright yet
their light is fading; it is night yet you are “beside
me here beneath the blue.” To Mills’ credit, however,
his phrases are modest and evocative, nicely supporting
the overall caravan mood.

- JW

Musical analysis of
“Caravan”

Original
Key

G minor

Form

A – A – B
– A

Tonality

“A” is primarily
minor, despite the fact that most of it
is spent on V7 (or corresponding diminished
substitution). “B” is a circle of fifths
in major.

Movement

Embellished
sustained note on dominant, descending chromatically
to the tonic by the end of “A”. Section
“B” ends with an upward arpeggiation to
the dominant of the original key.

The chromatically altered notes in the melody
over V7 and vii˚7 chords tend to give the
“A” section a mysterious, quasi-Oriental
sound, and the slow harmonic rhythm gives
the inexperienced improviser an opportunity
to work on ideas in a single key over several
measures (the D7 and Eb˚7 chord both serve
the same function, as the latter is identical
to D7(b9) without the root). The harmonic
progression of the “B” section, in contrast,
should be very familiar to anyone familiar
with “Sweet Georgia Brown,” as it uses a “circle
of fifths” in an almost identical fashion.

K. J. McElrath - Musicologist for JazzStandards.com

Check out K. J. McElrath’s book of Jazz Standards Guide Tone Lines at his web site (www.bardicle.com).

The melody of “Caravan”
has a lot of chromaticism that makes it fun to play.
And because the A section is composed of only two
chords, there are lots of possibilities for embellishments
and extensions of the basic harmony. The tune is
often played at a very bright tempo but also has
some real charm taken slowly.

Although generally associated with Duke Ellington
(who over his career had many different arrangements
of the tune), “Caravan” was a popular “mood” piece
recorded by a number of big bands in the 1930’s
(Edgar Hayes, Bunny Berigan,
Benny Goodman). An interesting version from
1937 is by the Mills Brothers, doing an arrangement
featuring their vocal imitation of instruments.

By the 1950’s, the tune had become a set-up for
extended drum solos (musician/composer Frank Zappa
once remarked, “I wanna hear ‘Caravan’ with a drum
solo”), and to most people this is the way the tune
is expected to be performed.

This section suggests definitive or otherwise significant recordings that will help jazz students get acquainted with
“Caravan.” These recordings have been selected from the Jazz History and
CD Recommendations sections.

The original recording of “Caravan” (Duke’s Men: The Small Groups, Vol. 1) is as musically brilliant as it is historically significant, and it is still the place to start when studying the tune. A more modern, edgy arrangement of the tune appeared on several recordings in the early 1960s courtesy of trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. The version he did with Art Blakey’s band (Caravan) would prove to be particularly influential. Meanwhile, though it is unusual to find a recent recording on any list of “definitive” recordings, the 1986 recording of “Caravan” by Wynton Marsalis (Marsalis Standard Time, Vol.1) is a notable exception, as his group’s performance has tremendously impacted the approach to the tune by subsequent generations.

This small-group performance is Ellington’s first version of the tune, and it is brilliant. It was actually issued under the name of clarinetist Barney Bigard and also features Harry Carney, Cootie Williams and the composer, Juan Tizol.

Weston lived for many years in Africa, absorbing its culture, and as a result brings new insight to Ellington’s work. He knew and admired Ellington, and here the pianist celebrates the Africanism of Duke’s music with Jamil Nasser (b), Idris Muhammad (drums and percussion), and Eric Asante (percussion.)

Bey was voted Vocalist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2003. The immediacy of Bey’s vocal is set against an unusual rhythmic pattern on “Caravan.” Pianist Geri Allen’s arrangements throughout the CD make everything fresh.

In this high-energy rendition drummer Blakey leads the sextet rhythmically while the horn section of trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, saxophonist Wayne Shorter and trombonist Curtis Fuller weave around each other like kites.